Skip to main content

For hosts with their hands full, PartySnapper app uses guests as event photographers

It’s hard enough to play host to a party, but imagine having to also be the event photographer, in addition to prepping food and DJ’ing music. A new app called PartySnapper makes everybody else a photographer, while you get to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

The free iOS app, created by German developer Boinx Software, works like this: Using the app on their iPhones or even iPads, guests at the party shoot photos (which they are probably doing anyway, with or without the app). The photos are then automatically transmitted to and collected on the app on the host’s iPhone or iPad; the app requires only one button push to snap and transmit the photo, so guests can concentrate on partying. All the images are saved on the host’s device (there’s no need to ask a guest to send them), and if it is connected to a TV or projector, it can be used to display slideshow images from the party (Party Light mode), in real time. Not only does it free a host to do other things, but also he/she gets to relive the party afterward with different points of view.

partysnapper
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The app is useful for small parties or those on a shoestring budget, who need to rely on the services of friends rather than pros. Besides house parties, the app is great for events like weddings, which was what inspired Boinx engineer Bastian Wölfe to create an early version of the app.

“Being the geek that I am, I knew I wanted to do something a bit nerdy for our big day,” Wölfe says in a release, referring to his wedding. “At so many weddings, they give out old disposable cameras for guests to snap pictures with, but these days, just about everyone has an iPhone they’re taking photos with anyway. I thought, why not find a way to connect everyone in so the pictures they snap are not only automatically saved in one central place, but automatically stream to the venue’s screens instantly? It created a really fun and engaging element I knew others would want to have at their weddings and events, too the app.”

While the app is free, there are premium in-app add-ons. There’s Party Hard mode that increases the 10-picture slideshow limit of Party Light to unlimited; $5 gets you seven days, $10 for 30 days, and $30 for a lifetime. Boinx says the lifetime option is ideal for party promoters or venues, and is making it available for $15 for a limited time.

Editors' Recommendations

Les Shu
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I am formerly a senior editor at Digital Trends. I bring with me more than a decade of tech and lifestyle journalism…
‘Photoshopped’ royal photo causes a stir
The Princess of Wales with her children.

[UPDATE: In a message posted on social media on Monday morning, Princess Kate said that she herself edited the image, and apologized for the fuss that the picture had caused. “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing," she wrote, adding, "I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused."]

Major press agencies have pulled a photo of the U.K.’s Princess of Wales and her children amid concerns that it has been digitally manipulated.

Read more
Help NASA in its quest to learn more about our sun
Scientists have used the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) in a new mode of operation to record part of the Sun’s atmosphere that has been almost impossible to image until now. By covering the Sun’s bright disc with an ‘occulter’ inside the instrument, EUI can detect the million-times fainter ultraviolet light coming from the surrounding corona.

SunSketcher Solar Eclipse Project Tutorial

NASA is calling on citizen astronomers in the U.S. to help it learn more about our sun.

Read more
How to photograph April’s solar eclipse, according to Nikon
A total solar eclipse.

Excitement is building for next month’s total solar eclipse that will see the moon’s shadow fall across a large part of the U.S., from Maine in the northeast all the way to Texas in the south.

Folks who make their way to the best viewing spots are reminded to protect their eyes by using specially designed solar specs or other safe viewing devices when witnessing the celestial event on April 8. Others may want to photograph the moment the moon comes directly between our planet and the sun (solar specs are still required!), and Nikon shared a video on Thursday offering some handy tips on how to do just that.

Read more